The Treaty was signed in Semipalatinsk, Kazakhstan, on 8 September 2006 by representatives from five Central Asian states (the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, the Republic of Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and the Republic of Uzbekistan), ratified by said states, and came into force on March 21, 2009.

The Treaty stipulates that all its participants renounce the development, production or other form of acquisition of nuclear arms, possession or control, distribution or transport of nuclear weapons by any means, testing or use of nuclear weapons, and commit to not allowing these actions on their territory by other states.

The Treaty includes a Protocol, open to signing by states possessing nuclear arms, under which such states commit to not using nuclear arms or threatening to use them against Treaty member states, or contributing to any act that constitutes a violation of the Treaty.

In accordance with the Presidential instruction of May 6, 2014, Russia signed the Protocol on 6 May 2014 simultaneously with all states possessing nuclear arms. Upon signing the Treaty, Russia made a statement concerning the scope of its application and a traditional reservation about the circumstances under which Russia will be bound by the obligations set forth in the Protocol.

The United Kingdom and France also made statements concerning obligations under the Protocol. China does not make any such statements or reservations, and in the United States this is usually done upon ratification of the Protocol.

Ratification of the Protocol will become an additional substantial contribution by the Russian Federation to strengthening nuclear non-proliferation.